This invention concerns hand coverings and in particular mittens. Mittens are worn for maximum warmth as compared with gloves due to the covering of the fingers together, to warm each other and to reduce the area exposed to the cold, but have the disadvantage of impeding effective use of the fingers and thumb. For this reason mittens have heretofore been proposed which allow the fingers and in some instances the thumb of the wearer to be optionally exposed when greater dexterity is required.
These mittens typically have openings formed by unzipping or folding back a section of the mitten through which the fingers and/or the thumb can be extended. This often creates a loose flap on the mitten, which itself gets in the way. Expensive and troublesome to operate zippers are also typically involved, such as in the mittens shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,299,441; 1,404,453; 1,849,418; 2,274,335; 2,451,837; 2,323,136; 2,318,785; 3,403,408; 2,315,889; 428,115 and 1,310,120.
Also, the fingers may either be insufficiently or overly exposed in the mitten shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,878 and enclosed by rolled up coverings which adversely affect use of the fingers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,427, a hand covering is shown in which the fingers and thumb are normally enclosed together making effective use of the thumb impossible except when the entire hand is exposed.
It is the object of the present invention to provide mittens which allow the wearer to conveniently expose the fingers and thumbs of the wearer without the need for unzipping openings or creating loose flaps when the fingers and/or the thumb are exposed.
It is another object to provide a mitten which allows the fingers and thumb to be exposed in a way that enables good dexterity of the fingers and thumb.